According to a report from Bloomberg, HTC is in discussions with Amazon to develop smartphones for users of its Prime streaming media service. While no final decision has been made, this does give us a hint of the strategic direction of each company. Let's take a look at the motivations and success factors for this strategy.

HTC's declared Q2 results last week that were an improvement over a weak Q1, but still below expectations. Both revenues & profits missed estimates, but it is the monthly revenue pattern and margin trends that concern me the most. The trends show that HTC is overly dependent on the high-end smartphone market that seems to becoming increasingly competition.

In my last post on the "profit share" trap, I had explained the natural evolution of the smartphone industry. In this post, I will be exploring the two primary market segments shaping the short to medium term growth prospects of smartphone OEMs. As per my definition, segmentation is not based on platform, but by usage patterns.

HTC has seen its smartphone shipments and market share drop steadily over the past couple of years. The company had pinned its hopes on the HTC One, but production problems derailed the launch. This has led to a mass employee exodus, which has put the future of the company in peril. Most people think that this was a direct result of Samsung's deep pockets and vertical integration. However, HTC's own strategic missteps may have caused its decline and this could make them a potentially attractive acquisition target for regional smartphone OEMs.

Facebook just introduced Home, a homescreen replacement for Android smartphones, which will be pre-loaded on the HTC First. The suite of apps will be exclusive to the Android platform, as other platforms don't allow the level of customization required for Facebook Home. Let's take a look at the potential of this strategy.

IDC recently released their global smartphone shipment figures and the list of top five vendors looks very different from what an industry watcher may have been used to. While Samsung and Apple have retained their industry leading positions, RIM, HTC & Nokia no longer make the list and have been overtaken by Sony, ZTE & Huawei. Let's take a look at the drivers of success & failure in this market.

According to a report from Digitimes, HTC is looking to re-enter the tablet market with a new 7 or 10 inch model by the end of 2012. HTC had previously paused its tablet efforts after the failure of its 7 inch Flyer and 10 inch Jetstream models. The move seems to be driven by the success of Asus, with the co-branded Nexus 7 tablet.